Name: City Council
Uploaded: 2025-10-21T00:00:00Z
Duration: 1 h 24 min 50 s
Description: So it's very common if you think of $1 or community development block grants to have a 20 or even 40 years that that has to maintain as sort of affordable housing.

[0:12] Good

[0:36] evening, and welcome to the Monday, October 20, 2025 meeting of the Astoria City Council. Mr. Spence,

[0:45] if you could lead us in the pledge, please, we would ask that you rise if you are willing

[0:49] and able.

[1:00] Thank you,

[1:05] Mr. Spence.

[1:08] If we can have a roll call, please.

[1:12] Councillor Davis, we're Councillor Mozzarella.

[1:15] Here.

[1:16] Councillor Adams.

[1:17] Councillor Lone.

[1:18] Here.

[1:19] Mayor Fitzpatrick.

[1:20] Here.

[1:20] So we'll start with reports of counselors in this evening. We start with counselor lump.

[1:28] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:29] Just a quick question. Are we not doing the proclamations that are on the agenda or?

[1:34] Oh, this is the old agenda. Sorry.

[1:38] Anyway, so I've talked to a lot of people about my resignation and people who are interested to know what the process will be.

[1:47] so I'm glad we're going to be talking about it tonight and hopefully sorting that out.

[1:53] And I've been really appreciative of anyone who's expressed

[1:56] that they have been happy with my service. I know a lot of people have expressed

[2:02] they haven't, so I guess I appreciate those comments too. And I'm excited for the

[2:09] library to be reopening on Saturday. I'm really excited to see that

[2:16] It's been a really kind of a long time coming. It feels like. So happy that's coming up. Yeah, that's all I got.

[2:23] Great. Thank you, Councilor Adams.

[2:27] Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, everyone. I'll be quick.

[2:32] Andrea or Councilor Mozzarella and I had an opportunity to host Girl Scouts here at City Council working on their democracy badge.

[2:40] And that was a really fun opportunity to do something that was fun and carefree and a great experience to share with the Girl Scouts, the things that we do on City Council. I think there was about 15 of them.

[2:55] I also attended the senior center membership meeting where I held a listening session on these city council work priorities covered the new utility assistance program and the qualifications and then also just listen to a lot of the concerns of the seniors were having there's about 45 46 people at that membership meeting.

[3:16] Some who've never attended before, so I felt very grateful that they attended just to come and share their concerns with the counselor.

[3:25] Also met with some local downtown business owners Brian Medford at the Rusty Cup and some other folks.

[3:32] Lots of emails still coming through about livability and housed situations and concerns.

[3:39] I know Tom Bronson this morning about the 100th year column anniversary and also just touching

[3:45] base about the library and his excitement for that.

[3:50] I met with some local veterans that the mayor had also met with about the veteran suicide

[3:55] documentary that's going to be coming out on Veterans Day, particularly focusing on rural

[4:01] veteran suicide and mental health issues at a low act meeting and then housing task force

[4:06] this Wednesday and I'm going to meet with Representative Javiti taking some talking points

[4:12] from the city manager to talk with him. That's all I have to report. Thank you.

[4:17] Great. Thank you, Councillor Adams.

[4:19] Councillor Rosarillo. Thank you. I will echo what Councillor Adams said that it was really

[4:25] awesome to host the Girl Scouts. It was a really fun pull some uplifting a couple of hours and the

[4:31] But staff and Mr. Spence and Mr. Quigley prepared some really cool activities and it was

[4:37] just absolutely delightful.

[4:39] I think the kids loved it.

[4:40] I think the adults loved it, everyone loved it.

[4:45] And I wanted to say I spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks in person and online

[4:50] and email and social media corresponding with a lot of residents similarly about the life

[4:57] and safety issues about the previously proposed.

[5:00] Those exclusion ordinance that had been kind of re-bought back up at the last meeting, I spent a lot of time researching, writing this whole long thing and I'm going to spare you all from having to hear me recite it. But I do want to say something that I feel like was really important in those communications with people was first to clarify my previous comments about constituents feedback was not meant to imply that I or the majority of my constituents don't recognize that there's an urgency in addressing

[5:29] addressing like safety and criminal activity in our community, the vast majority of constituents

[5:35] feedback was an opposition of an exclusion ordinance, but the majority, I think actually

[5:40] I could say 100% of the people are in agreement that the city is facing multiple complex challenges

[5:46] and they want to see the city take meaningful effective action to address that.

[5:50] So I want to just emphasize that I think we're all coming from a same, we have some shared

[5:56] goals, although how we think we can solve those problems made vastly differ. But I don't want it to

[6:01] become this us versus them, you versus me. Thing that I feel like it's starting to happen in the

[6:06] community. So I'm kind of hoping we can kind of all reunify a little bit around our shared values

[6:12] and our goals for safety. So that's my, my two cents about it. My short version. Thank you.

[6:18] Great. Thank you, Councillor Marcello. Councillor Davis.

[6:21] Thank

[6:25] you, Mayor.

[6:27] Apologies that I'm not in council chambers tonight.

[6:29] I'm struggling with the medical issue this last week.

[6:32] And I'll try to contribute tonight.

[6:35] But I think if it crops up,

[6:37] I may be on an off camera tonight, too.

[6:42] Similar constituent outreach to a lot of what other

[6:45] Councillors have already named.

[6:47] I met with and corresponded with some residents of my ward who

[6:52] are interested in what we're doing as a backup or an alternative plan to the

[6:59] exclusion zone ordinance. Talk to them about what alternatives there might be

[7:03] possible for the city. I agree with Councillor Mazarella's statement about I think

[7:11] everyone wants improvement about what we see on the street and the conditions

[7:18] that some people are facing. And we just have some different approaches to get there.

[7:24] But I'm looking forward to our work session coming up. We did have a cold pack meeting that

[7:28] I attended during the last two weeks. No distinct action on the theme of biop. There was a little

[7:37] reporting back on it. And I think that there was, I don't know that the topics of the meeting were

[7:48] incredibly impactful for City of Astoria.

[7:53] Yeah, I'm happy to get to the beef of tonight's meeting. Thank you, Mayor.

[7:59] Great. Thank you, Councillor Davis. My weeks have been pretty similar to the other

[8:06] Councillors. I met with the former Councillor Brownson last week, updated me about the Friends

[8:12] of the history of column plans for the 100th year anniversary.

[8:16] And then I also had a lighthearted and fun opportunity to read the book, Go Dog Go, to

[8:24] the Head Start class here in Astoria.

[8:26] And that was a lot of fun.

[8:29] I also got to meet Grace Robinson, the director of Head Start.

[8:33] So that was a fun day.

[8:35] And then I joined the veterans for coffee at the Elks on Thursday.

[8:39] and then met with Sean Davis and his wife Kelly and gave them a tour of City Hall and

[8:45] as Councilor Adams indicated Mr. Davis along with his friend Brad Pizek have made a documentary

[8:53] about the rate of high, the high rate of veteran suicides in Oregon and I appreciate that their

[8:59] story made the front page of the story and on Saturday and as I had already made another commitment

[9:05] And for that day, I appreciate that Counselor's Davis

[9:09] and Counselor Adams will be able to join them

[9:12] at the Liberty Theater on Veterans Day

[9:14] when they screen their documentary.

[9:17] And then I worked the concessions

[9:19] at the Class of Plash football game on Friday

[9:21] and that was a lot of fun,

[9:23] along with some other people in the room here.

[9:26] Counselor Adams, it was fun watching your smiling face

[9:29] there at the at the counter

[9:32] and Scott Cook and the Burgers

[9:34] and there are a few other people that are in the room tonight here that were there as well.

[9:38] It's unfortunate that Astoria lost literally in the last two seconds of the game.

[9:44] There's a real disappointment. They had been leading for most of the game,

[9:47] but they did a good job. We're proud of their efforts, and we'll see how they do it their

[9:51] game this Friday. And then Saturday, I went to the household, hazardous waste event.

[9:56] and on the...

[10:00] I've been to this several times, and one time I just drove up, dropped off a bunch of CFL bulbs

[10:08] and went on my way. And this time, waited in line. When I pulled up, the lady said it'd

[10:16] be at least an hour wait. That was an hour and a half to get through there. But got rid

[10:21] of a bunch of fluorescent bulbs and some acetone that had been sitting in my basement forever

[10:26] and some easy off of and cleaner and anyhow.

[10:30] So good that we have those.

[10:32] It's obviously there's obviously need for it.

[10:34] They do it four times a year.

[10:36] Interesting to see how many people showed up for that.

[10:39] So that was good.

[10:40] So we'll move on to the,

[10:43] well, we'll first see if there are any changes

[10:45] to the agenda and Mr. Spence,

[10:47] were there any changes to the agenda this evening?

[10:49] No, great.

[10:50] So that'll take us to the consent calendar.

[10:53] And the items on the consent calendar are considered routine

[10:55] and will be adopted by one motion unless a member of the City Council request

[10:59] have any item considered separately. Members of the community may have an item

[11:03] removed if they contact the City Manager by 5 p.m. on the day of the meeting.

[11:08] So has anyone else to have anything removed?

[11:11] No.

[11:11] Have the Councillors else to have anything removed? No.

[11:14] Great. In that case, could we have a motion or would anybody like to comment on the

[11:20] consent calendar before we move forward?

[11:21] I don't have any comments but I'd make a motion if no one else has a comment please do okay

[11:27] I would move that we adopt the consent calendar as it is presented

[11:31] Do we have a second second moved by councilor mozzarella second by councilor Adams

[11:36] Mr. Spence if we could ever roll call please

[11:39] Councilor Davis aye

[11:41] Is Mozilla aye councilor Adams councilor Lohm aye mayor Fitzpatrick aye

[11:47] That brings us to our regular agenda and all items are open for public comment

[11:51] that following deliberation by the City Council and rather than asking for the public comment after each agenda item, I ask that audience members raise their hands if they want to speak to the item and they will be recognized in an order to respect everyone's time comments will be limited to three minutes.

[12:08] So, 7A is the consideration of an authorization of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund,

[12:16] CWS RF, loan agreement amendment for the sewage lift rehabilitation project.

[12:22] City Manager Spence, if you could introduce this item, please.

[12:26] Thank you, Mayor and City Council.

[12:28] You've seen this topic a number of times.

[12:30] This has been identified as a critical infrastructure project within the City of Astoria.

[12:35] Namely, the three lift stations, they can be any volume of 1 million gallons per day to 18 million gallons per day during heavy storms during the winter time.

[12:45] These systems are over 50 years old and they are beyond their life or serviceable life.

[12:52] We've identified this as a critical upgrade for these three lift stations, the approximate cost to do this project is around 3.6 million.

[13:00] We've been discussing various ways on how to fund this project to the Credit of Public

[13:06] Works and namely, Assistant City Engineer, City Moore.

[13:09] We were able to get a loan which is around $3.2 million.

[13:15] Originally, we had some design grants that we don't have to pay back to actually get us

[13:19] closer to that eventual goal.

[13:21] The last loan that we received was $119 million.

[13:24] them before you is for an additional 3.2, I'm sorry, $3 million, $84,108 to bring that

[13:31] total to $3 million, $204,028.

[13:36] The one thing about unique about this loan is that half of this is forgivable, so essentially

[13:41] we'll be paying about $1.6 million, so we'll provide some relief to our rate payers, but

[13:47] this is an anticipated project, this is an important point of how we're going to fund this project,

[13:51] And with that, I'd happy to answer any questions.

[13:54] I know Cindy was here, Cindy is here.

[13:57] Our Assistant City Engineer,

[13:59] if there's any technical questions

[14:00] that she may be able to answer, right?

[14:03] Thank you, Mr. Suspense.

[14:04] Questions for staff?

[14:09] Council discussion.

[14:14] Would anyone, oh, Councilor Adams.

[14:16] Just really excited about this,

[14:17] and I want to definitely recognize

[14:20] Assistant Director Moore under her hard work on this.

[15:00] Effort to try and get some state assistance with some of this project, but I'm glad to see that we have some other funding sources available. So thanks for working hard on that. Great. Thank you, Councillor Adams. Would anyone in the audience like to address us on this item this evening? You don't see any hands raised in chambers and they don't see any hands raised online. So is anyone ready to make a motion on this?

[15:28] I can make a motion. Great. Councillor Adams.

[15:31] I move the S. Various City Council authorize the DEQ, CW, SRF loan agreement amendment for the construction phase in the amount of $3,204,028 for the lift sewage lift stations rehabilitation project.

[15:46] Do we have a second?

[15:48] I will second.

[15:49] Moved by Councillor Adams, second by Councillor Maurella further discussion.

[15:53] All those in favor say aye.

[15:57] Opposed?

[15:57] Motion carries.

[15:58] That brings us to 7-B, which is consideration of adoption of the City of Astoria's Housing Initiative Program, HIP, and Community Real Resiliency Program.

[16:09] Mr. Spence, if you could introduce the item, please.

[16:13] Thank you. As Council knows, housing in general has been a top priority for City Council.

[16:19] It's been identified in various places within the work plan.

[16:22] One such program that we did discuss was the housing initiative program and community resiliency program.

[16:29] We have a fund, it's called 1140, that does have funds that are basically flexible, these are one time funds.

[16:37] The idea was to see if these funds can be used to leverage housing within the city of Astoria.

[16:42] The program that was presented to you on September 29th at a work session this year was to essentially we have a half million dollars that we can set aside.

[16:50] at the grants or loans actually would be for $100,000

[16:53] through to be low interest loans.

[16:55] Electoral projects could be for mid-housing,

[16:57] so think of duplexes, triplexes, or four-plexes

[17:01] in cottage clusters, and also multi-family projects.

[17:05] The idea would be to leverage these dollars,

[17:08] so we can entice as a potential incentive

[17:11] for potential developers wanting to build homes

[17:13] within the city of Astoria.

[17:16] The other part of this program

[17:18] is to do a community resiliency program, which we've set aside $100,000 for, and those grants would be for $20,000, and it'd be a one-for-one match, and actually staff time would also be able to.

[17:30] You may recall this fund was first used to help Kinseo, Hispanic Council to pay off SDC, so this would be another opportunity to work with our community partners, think of the food hub, if they were trying to relocate.

[17:46] that'd be an opportunity to assist with our critical nonprofits but also have some ability to

[17:50] provide some economic development generation. Council was clear that they wanted some flexibility,

[17:56] so even though we're communicating this is a $100,000 low interest program, if applicants can

[18:01] be desired project characteristics such as building ten or more units, keeping the cost down per unit

[18:07] in terms of what we're investing in such as 10,000 plus meeting workforce housing goals,

[18:12] than a portion of that loan could be forgiven or potentially more than 100,000 could be allocated.

[18:18] So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions related to this program.

[18:21] Great. Thank you, City Manager Spence.

[18:24] I appreciate the effort that you and staff have put into providing this for us.

[18:29] I held it pretty well, summed up what we had discussed at our, in our last discussion.

[18:36] So do we have questions for staff on this?

[18:42] Okay, do we have a discussion?

[18:46] Sure.

[18:47] Sorry, Mayor.

[18:48] Sorry, I was slow to that call out there.

[18:51] For staff, I'm just curious.

[18:56] If this may seem very rhetorical, and it's not at all.

[18:59] But like what developers are going to participate in this at that level of.

[19:05] 100,000.

[19:06] I mean, what's what what developers are really looking?

[19:09] Looking, do we actually have developers in mind or do we know who are commonly doing projects that will speak to this?

[19:18] So the best example I can come up with is Coblin Commons.

[19:21] So they specifically came to us and they wanted $200,000.

[19:25] Based on this program, this wouldn't fit within their will house in the sense that they could apply for $100,000.

[19:30] But the fact that they're doing workforce housing,

[19:33] council of final authority, if they want to increase that amount, that was helping them provide basically

[19:38] the gap financing or what their total project is going to be, I don't think you know until

[19:43] we start to market the program for potential developers.

[19:46] So when some comes to the Community Development Department and is talking to John about

[19:50] potential property development and maybe they're trying to get over hurdle, it could be SDCs,

[19:54] it could be infrastructure, this could be a potential way to make that project pencil out.

[20:00] We, her how staff handled some of the feedback about the desired project characteristics. I thought that was nice where it, it shows, you know, if you go above and beyond, trying to meet some of the goals that we said, then, you know, we will possibly go above and beyond. I know we talked a lot about that at the last meeting about how do you communicate that there's flexibility if you meet us really where we want to be. So I was just really pleased with that. So thank you to staff for working on that. Great. Thank you, Councillor Lump.

[20:30] Councillor Davis.

[20:32] Thank you, Mayor.

[20:34] I just wanted to echo some of Councillor Lump's appreciation to staff for pulling this together

[20:40] in general.

[20:41] I think, you know, this is a novel program for us, so it's great that we've been able to go

[20:46] from sort of conception to something that we're able to bring to the public now.

[20:51] And I feel good about it.

[20:53] I am hopeful as far as Councillor Adams questioned that, you know, maybe this makes

[20:59] some developers interested because we are making a sort of a difference on the margins for people that might get something get a project over the edge that they're interested in doing in in town and and that we can we can incentivize some new housing projects that we're not even thinking about right now.

[21:21] So yeah, thank you to staff and thank you to the rest of council for the discussion we've had on this over the last few months.

[21:29] Great.

[21:31] Thank you, Councillor Davis. Councillor Adams, it looked like you wanted to say something as well.

[21:35] Thank you. Sorry, I'm going to go on out of turn here.

[21:39] I'm curious if the council is open to a timeline in which we're going to look at this again and see what the effective.

[21:49] If this is effective, if we actually solicit the type of projects or the type of attention

[21:57] that we hope to bring to this program, I'd like to see us think about what would be a good

[22:04] amount of time to feel like we could evaluate whether or not we're getting the bites that we

[22:09] want off of this.

[22:12] Yeah, I personally would think a year is reasonable. I mean, you know, I don't think anyone's

[22:19] going to put something together in three to six months. But I think a year would be

[22:24] a reasonable amount of time. We can always review it. I mean, if we get a bunch of applications

[22:32] in the next three months, we can look into that. If we don't hear from anyone in a year,

[22:37] We can try to figure out why and if it's somewhere in between.

[22:45] Yeah, I would like us to just think about that, you know, find out where this can kind of come back around where we can kind of evaluate.

[22:52] Especially if we have somebody who decides to take advantage of this program, whereas where it really may potentially need some changes or maybe not.

[23:00] So I'd like us to really keep that evaluation process kind of open.

[23:04] And we're trying a few different things here, and it'll be interesting to see, I don't

[23:10] know that they're all necessarily pilot programs, but kind of they are, it'll be interesting

[23:15] to see what kind of response we get from the community and other developers on the different

[23:20] programs that we've put together in the last few months.

[23:25] Further discussion from Council?

[23:27] All right, opening it up to the audience.

[23:29] Is there anyone in chambers that would like to address us on this this evening?

[23:32] Thank you.

[23:33] Lisa Morley.

[23:45] Lisa Morley.

[23:46] Alderbrick neighborhood.

[23:48] A story.

[23:49] So, regarding worker workforce housing, it's very hard to find details.

[23:56] I've done a lot of research.

[23:57] It's very hard to find details on the project behind Safeway.

[24:01] From what I understand that was supposed to be designed for workforce housing.

[24:04] That's why they were allowed to build and develop that property.

[24:08] And there were restrictions on what their rents were supposed to be, and then supposedly

[24:14] the developer ran out of money, sold it to another developer, and now the places are

[24:18] going for $2,600 a month, clearly not worth $1,000.

[24:22] So who's falling up on these restrictions?

[24:25] If you have it and they sell it to somebody else, did they move, the restrictions move because

[24:31] clearly that didn't happen there.

[25:01] Announcements are not accessible. What are you going to do on this one? You're talking about developing properties, more properties in tsunami zones. I was refused to be able to buy one lot to put up a pole barn because it was in the tsunami zone where other houses are in my neighborhood. And I was turned down because the tsunami the other thing is there are current properties just in ward four alone that people cannot afford to fix up because the permitting process is not a

[25:29] so difficult. I have two I know that wanted to fix up two existing properties that they

[25:36] have and they would have been multiple multiple dwelling properties and they've been they

[25:42] can't fight they can't fight their way through the permitting processes because they're old

[25:47] properties they've got to meet all these historical requirements which I don't know why because

[25:51] word for is not a historical property zone but they just gave up and I talked to a lot of people

[25:57] and board board that have just given up and trying to fix up their properties for themselves

[26:02] or for future ADU properties and to add those.

[26:07] So I think we have a lot on the table right now that we're not addressing.

[26:11] So I feel like just throwing more money at it, instead of addressing the problems that

[26:16] have solutions right now and not addressing those first.

[26:20] And then talking about adding something once we get all of our existing problems fixed and

[26:25] And then seeing what our real gap is.

[26:28] And then having toured the two public works projects that are working right now, I ask

[26:36] in both of those, what population have you targeted in these upgrades and all these millions

[26:42] of dollars for spending, and they both said 10,000.

[26:45] That's what our story has always been.

[26:46] So if we're, again, trying to push ourselves over that limit, those properties, those projects

[26:52] to working on right now or have not even been designed to go over 10,000 so those are my

[27:00] hesitations. It's not that I don't want to be able to help but I think we have a lot of

[27:04] stuff there already that we're not working on. Thank you, Ms. Morley.

[27:09] Anybody else that would like to address the council?

[27:18] Any minute rest for the record? Oh, um, Merrill and Dita 37th Street, Ward 4.

[27:25] I'm not prepared, but I just want to echo exactly what Lisa said in that we have many,

[27:31] many beautiful old properties sitting on cool lots, not obstructing anybody's view that

[27:39] could be refurbished back into some kind of studio or one bedroom places for the workforces

[27:47] and perhaps low income that we could actually designate

[27:53] specifically limits and who can qualify to live there.

[27:59] Rather than build something new

[28:01] for a brand new developer to throw up in the middle

[28:04] of beautiful scenic downtown Astoria,

[28:08] obstructing some river view that should be remaining flat

[28:13] and open.

[28:14] So I think we should look a lot harder at a lot of old properties sitting for sale on the corners of all sorts of streets right here that could be turned into something useful and remain useful and affordable.

[28:29] Thank you.

[28:30] Great. Thank you Ms. Dita. I will point out since I don't remember seeing you here before I have to read the captioning so while you're speaking I'm looking at this screen rather than you to try to understand you so and for anyone else who is not familiar with that anybody else in the audience that want to address us on item seven be this evening.

[28:55] Do we have any hands raised online? I don't change any.

[29:00] For the discussion, or is somebody ready to make a motion?

[29:03] Can we address at least some of the relevant concerns that were brought up?

[29:10] Because I think it's important.

[29:14] So, as far as I understand, when we talked about this program before,

[29:18] it's not limited only to large developers and new yourself.

[29:22] of a moment ago, Scott mentioned duplexes and things.

[29:26] So as far as fixing up current properties, you know, if there's a good plan, then apply.

[29:33] It's not just for big developers from out of town.

[29:36] If somebody who's here who has the know how and wants to apply for something that meets

[29:40] the program, then they can get it.

[30:00] Local family homes for just a single living unit. So, whether it's possibly converting a single family home into a duplex, I suppose that could work. So, we're not just trying to do Copeland Commons only. And then, I just lost my train of thought. There's a second one that I wanted us to try to clear up because there was a misconception. So just to verify, correct. This is not just new. It's also any renovation projects. It could be existing structure.

[30:29] There's actually specifics in here to talk about even helping ADA accessible requirements

[30:35] or even sprinkler if you're in the downtown area.

[30:38] One of the restrictions is if it's in the Astoria Development Commission properties either

[30:42] Astor West, this would not be eligible because there's other funds for those projects.

[30:47] If we were going to enter into a development agreement with the property owner or developer

[30:52] and the council, we would have to have strict guidelines on the title like deed restrictions

[30:57] If it were going to be for workforce housing, so that would be one of the elements of met the sort of preferred characteristics, and you wanted to be more flexible and $100,000.

[31:06] Then that would be one of those provisions you would put in a contract and there'd be a deed restriction on that.

[31:12] In terms of the story of waterfront properties, that was a private development and didn't have city dollars.

[31:17] So they were, they may have communicated it was workforce housing, but they weren't required to.

[31:22] So they just made market rate housing.

[31:25] Thank you, Manager, it spends that mostly address what I was wanting to say and I remembered

[31:30] what I was going to ask, which was, how do we ensure that it will be work for us and

[31:34] you basically set it but just for the benefit of clarity, a deed restriction is something

[31:41] that can, we can take the terms of that for a certain amount of years if we want or it's

[31:47] forever, I mean, it's basically, we get to decide that, right?

[31:50] Right, from just a legal standpoint, if Council wants to provide public funds and there's a public or community benefit,

[31:57] you would have the right if they would like this terms or this loan or grant forgiveness to be able to put additional restrictions on the property.

[32:05] So it's very common if you think of $1 or community development block grants to have a 20 or even 40 years that that has to maintain as sort of affordable housing.

[32:14] We've defined workforce housing as 60 to 100 percent of AMI for this area.

[32:20] So again, those were the details that would have to be worked out once you received an

[32:23] application and how comfortable council was basically extending this program to that project.

[32:29] Right, and perhaps Mr. Mayor, since you're more familiar with owning property, then if there's

[32:37] a deed restriction on something that follows that property, right? If it was sold,

[32:41] Yes, the new owner would be having to abide by whatever deed restriction.

[32:46] If it's either forever or however many years are left on it, right? Right. Right.

[32:50] So then on waterfront, if there had been deed restrictions there, it would have been,

[32:55] it would have followed to the new owners as well. Right.

[32:58] Yeah, which was another thing I was going to mention as if, you know,

[33:01] hypothetical alternate universe, if the city was involved in the waterfront apartments,

[33:05] which we weren't in any way as far as funding,

[33:09] then it doesn't matter if they lost money or switched hands 20 times that

[33:14] the restriction would still be there so yeah I just I think there's a misconception on what that

[33:19] project was and it's unfortunate but it was fully just a private project and they just changed

[33:27] their mind so that's just how it went unfortunately right I would point out and certainly not to defend

[33:36] any one but in 2017 cost a build were a little different than when they broke ground and we all

[33:47] anyone doing any work found that they were way over budget. So I had a

[33:54] $140,000 project that turned into a $400,000 project and I

[34:00] understand that that was supposed to be somewhere around six or seven million and they were

[34:04] well over that when they were done. So 13 or 14 million, I believe, when they were done.

[34:10] So, um, yeah, and I'm not necessarily trying to, yeah, again, I'm not defending that.

[34:15] I'm just, yeah, um, in all fairness, a lot of things changed between the time that they

[34:20] started and the time that they ended. So, yeah, I would also, um, as far as I understand,

[34:26] uh, that property, anyway, this is never right. I'm gonna stop.

[34:30] Oh, yeah. This is not relevant to what we're trying to talk about. Sorry.

[34:35] I have a question, and I'm not exactly sure who to ask.

[34:40] But for something like a deed restriction, if we want to be, like, reserve the rights

[34:46] to negotiate or impose that, do we need, should we have any verbiage on the application in

[34:53] regards like that this could be subject to, will there be any sort of, like, do we need a

[34:58] disclaimer, could someone, I mean, I guess...

[35:00] Again, if it doesn't need to be preferred, say, characteristics that you're looking for, development characteristics, then it could be simply just a low interest long, which is a little bit different. Okay. But you'd still, we'd still put provisions there in terms of, you know, collateral, make sure we could pay back and it worked similar to what estuary development commission does when they do low interest loans. Awesome. Thank you so much for a little discussion. Who'd like to make a motion?

[35:29] I would love to make a motion if possible. Sure. Councillor on.

[35:36] I move that the Astoria City Council adopt the housing initiative program and community resiliency program and direct staff to bring forward to council a resolution to change the name of fund number 140.

[35:48] Do we have a second?

[35:50] I'll second.

[35:51] Move by council alone.

[35:52] Second by councilor Moussaurella.

[35:54] All those in favor say aye.

[35:57] Opposed?

[35:59] Motion carries.

[35:59] And that brings us to 7-C, which is a resolution to update fees to the Astoria Public Library

[36:05] Schedule E. Mr. Spence.

[36:11] Thank you, Mayor and City Council.

[36:12] So you recall on our September 2 meeting we reviewed amendments to Schedule E, which primarily

[36:18] deals with any fees associated with our library.

[36:21] There was concern brought forth of charging for the library's flag rooms since there was

[36:27] a side of need for room within the public that would be low cost.

[36:32] So that issue was taken back to the Library Advisory Board and they reflected on the comments

[36:38] and also direction by City Council and they are now recommending for any Astoria-based

[36:43] organization or non-profit that they would actually have not receive a cost, but if you

[36:48] are commercial entity it would be a $50 cost, an hour.

[36:51] So, that is one change that was brought forth as a recommendation.

[36:57] All other things remain the same, which, as you may recall, we are eliminating overdue

[37:01] materials as a best practice, non-resident fee, there's some minor changes, printed pages

[37:07] for the public are actually run through the Astoria Library Friends Association, so there's

[37:11] not a need to have a fee in our schedule since we don't charge that.

[37:15] The Barles card replacement is going from $6 to $3 to actually reflect the true cost.

[37:20] Damage fees are in alignment with seaside warrants and libraries so you'd pay for the actual cost of that damage material as I mentioned the flag room rental

[37:29] We're amending that from last September meeting to actually have free access to the room for nonprofits and community based organizations

[37:35] So with that, I'd be happy to answer questions. Obviously Suzanne Harold's here our librarian can provide more insight also

[37:42] Great. Thank you mr. Spence

[37:45] questions for staff not

[37:49] seeing any

[37:51] comments from counselors. Counselor Adams. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to say thank you for taking us back and having the advisory group. Take a look at that and make those changes. I know sometimes we can seem a little nitpicky up here about these issues, but really having that that third space be important for the community. Thank you for taking the back and taking the time to adjust that. I appreciate it.

[38:18] Great. Thank you, Council Adams.

[38:22] Further discussion?

[38:24] Not seeing any.

[38:26] Is there anyone in the audience this evening that would like to address the Council on this?

[38:33] On regarding 7C, the updated public library fees, wait, wait, wait, if you want to talk on

[38:42] 7C, please come up to the lectern, station name and address for the record.

[38:46] My name is Rick Newton. I live at 765 South West 8 in Warrington. I just wanted people

[38:53] to know that when I go to Alaska, the one thing I noticed about Alaska is the library

[38:57] is the community hub of everything. And so the more you do with your library to promote

[39:04] that and get the people embedded in it, the better off you are. Because I face stiff opposition

[39:08] in Warrington because some people said, well, we could hire a police officer with that bond.

[39:12] on one, it's illegal to do that, two, we need a library.

[39:16] So I hope you do the best.

[39:18] If you want ideas, I go steal ideas from the libraries

[39:20] that'll ask it.

[39:21] That's what I do is steal ideas.

[39:23] So anyway, the best you can, thank you.

[39:27] Thank you, Mr. Newton.

[39:29] Anyone else that want to address us this evening?

[39:34] I don't see any hands raised online.

[39:36] Okay, would anyone like to make a motion?

[39:41] Councilor Adams.

[39:42] Thank you, Mayor.

[39:43] I move that the Australia City Council approved the attached

[39:46] The resolution which updates the Astoria Public Library V. Schedule E.

[39:52] Do we have a second?

[39:54] I'll second.

[39:55] Great.

[39:55] Motion by Councillor Adam, second by Councillor Lambe.

[39:59] All those in

[40:00] Anyone else that want to address this this evening?

[40:04] I don't see any hands raised online. Okay. Would anyone like to make a motion?

[40:11] Councillor Adams. Thank you, Mayor. I move that the Astoria City Council approved the attached fee resolution, which updates the Astoria Public Library of the Schedule E. Do we have a second? All second? Great. Motion by Councillor Adams, second by Councillor Lump. All those, oh, we're going to have a roll call here. Mr. Spence, if we could have a roll call, please.

[40:44] Mr.

[40:47] Spence, if you could introduce the item, please.

[40:51] The Commeran City Council, as you know, councilman has announced his resignation from this

[40:56] body will be effective November 1st, 2025. As per the city charter within 60 days by the

[41:02] employment or the city council has the ability to fill either through an employment within

[41:07] 60 days of the announcement of the vacation of that seed or the alternative, the majority

[41:12] of council can pass a resolution and declare that they can be filled at the next available

[41:16] election at a special or at a special election. Council employment process is obviously a public

[41:22] process. It would typically involve some kind of application, a timeline to fill the vacancies,

[41:27] so we meet the 60 days, can it interviews and questions, and then a voting process to

[41:32] appoint a finalist. Election process is a little bit more straightforward. There would be a

[41:38] passing of a resolution. We would follow the schedule outlined by Class of County for election calendar.

[41:46] Typically, in this case, the next special election, because there's not a regular election,

[41:50] and it will be March 10th, 2026.

[41:54] We do have some preliminary numbers on what an election cost would be.

[41:57] It's roughly about $68,000.

[41:59] That's a very preliminary estimate from the Clause of County clerk's office.

[42:03] That also depends if that's the singular or single item on that ballot.

[42:07] If there's more that cost actually could go down.

[42:10] If council chose to do the election process,

[42:12] then a resolution would have to be passed by November 16th to make that schedule.

[42:16] So with that, those are the two options before council and staff that's here to support whatever city council direction that you choose.

[42:26] I'm sure myself for the city attorney to answer any other questions related to that process. Great.

[42:33] Thank you, Mr. Spence. Before we go into discussion, questions for staff or the city attorney.

[42:40] Councilor Lemme.

[42:43] So are there any specific rules that establish the timeline for an application process or anything like that beyond the 60 days total, I guess, but is there anything any more specific than that?

[43:00] That would be up to council.

[43:01] Okay.

[43:02] and then it says, as one of our options to vote on, if we want to do the appointment thing,

[43:13] then it says, and hold a special meeting to establish a timeline and process, would we not be

[43:18] doing that today? So again, not anticipating in what council's direction going to be. The thought would

[43:24] be if you chose option one, then let's do a special meeting so we can work out the details. So again,

[43:30] and what would be on application,

[43:31] there are some minimum requirements.

[43:33] Council could simply adopt what is done with the SEL 101 form

[43:38] as a guidance document.

[43:41] Typically, you need to be obviously a residence

[43:42] of this case, Ward 4.

[43:44] You have to be the meat of restored voter requirement

[43:47] and also a six-month residency requirement.

[43:50] So you'd want to make sure

[43:51] that any prospective candidate

[43:52] wouldn't be considered for a appointment,

[43:53] at least meant those qualifications.

[43:56] Council could decide to put additional information

[43:57] if they thought that would help them

[43:59] make their decision. Then again we want to be clear and deliberate in the process to make sure

[44:04] those prospective candidates know what the timelines are, what's expected of them. So the special

[44:08] meeting would go through some of those elements and provide direction in detail. So it'd be clarity

[44:14] for anyone wanting to be selected for that position if that makes sense. So again not presuming that

[44:21] we do it tonight, we just need direction from council when we need to have that special meeting.

[44:28] Okay. That's why that language was in there. Okay.

[44:34] All right. Yeah. I'm just going to.

[44:38] I think.

[44:39] Personally, it'd be kind of unfortunate that our meetings not that long and we have to hold a second meeting to move it along.

[44:46] It seems like not an efficient way to do it.

[44:48] But.

[44:49] If we have to, I suppose. I mean, that's up to whatever council wants to do.

[44:53] But it seems like we have time to work out the details at a current meeting, right?

[45:00] The efficiency of moving the process along. I told a number of people that we were hopefully

[45:05] going to be working out the details tonight, so I was possibly misinformed before I saw

[45:09] the agenda. So again, not knowing what council and the option one or two, the thought was

[45:14] if you chose option one, then within, we could then announce a special meeting, any of the

[45:20] mean Wednesday or Thursday, and then work out those details and just concentrate on what

[45:25] that would be. Okay, other questions for staff or for Mr. Spence or the city attorney?

[45:37] Oh, Councillor Davis. Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of questions to clarify about

[45:43] timeline things. So the November 16 deadline associated with county elections, that's a county

[45:52] elections deadline, that's not to do with our charter or anything like that, right?

[45:57] And then the language seems to be about declaration of vacancy, right?

[46:05] Decoration by Council of the vacancy.

[46:08] So does that 60-day timeline, does it start after Councilor Lump has resigned from Council

[46:20] and then the current City Council at that point declares a vacancy as opposed to starting

[46:27] from the time when Councilor Lump, let us know that he was going to be vacating.

[46:33] So I'll look at our City Attorney, but I think there's two ways to review that language.

[46:39] One, you have 60 days to fill an appointment based on when the resignation day.

[46:44] So I'd say that's 60 days from them of her first.

[46:47] The alternative method which is the election, when you declare a vacancy, you're now subject

[46:52] to the calendar that's established by the elections officer at the county.

[46:56] So there's no 60 days, this is basically the quickest election, either be a regular election

[47:03] or a special election.

[47:05] I guess bottom line, either way, we're not in the window now where our 60 days is counting

[47:11] off, right? That window will not start until the vacancy is actual. That's my interpretation.

[47:20] Okay. Blair, you want to add? Yes, I think that's the most reasonable reading of our chart.

[47:29] Okay. Thank you.

[47:34] Further questions? Okay. So again, to clarify, what we're doing tonight is

[47:41] is determining whether we want to have the council appoint or go to a special election.

[47:49] I would be fine with some level of discussion tonight, but we can't make a decision because

[47:54] we haven't posted that.

[47:57] We can't make a decision tonight other than whether we're going to do an appointment or

[48:06] do we go to the special election.

[48:09] So I

[48:14] guess we could start with council's feelings about it first or we could go to public comment and then come back and discuss after we hear from the public.

[48:27] What would council like to do here?

[48:33] I'd be happy to hear public comment on this before we discuss unless someone else on council has something they want to share before we go there.

[48:42] It looks like we're all in agreement.

[48:44] Okay.

[48:45] So we'll go to public comment here.

[48:47] Is there anyone that would like to, in Chambers tonight, that would like to address

[48:51] us on whether they would like us to have the council appoint a person to fill the seat

[48:59] or go to a special election?

[49:04] Do we have any, I see a hand raised online, I'm sorry, a hand raised in the back of the

[49:09] room.

[49:09] Oh, sorry, Ms. Dito, the name and address for the record?

[49:17] Wait a minute.

[49:19] 3137 Street, still award for.

[49:21] Anyway, I do think it's nice to have these options of appointing someone with from within

[49:28] the council.

[49:29] Cool, but there are that very many of you to do that.

[49:32] I think it should be put into an election of some sort.

[49:36] I know it's not a cheap endeavor, but I do think it should go to the people to make

[49:41] another selection. That's all I have to say. Great. Okay. Thank you. Would anybody

[49:50] else like to address us on this this evening?

[49:58] Call in coming 3625.

[50:04] Call in coming, 3625, Dwayne Street, ward 4. I guess I have some questions. This discussion goes forward. One is I mourn for it should council choose to go this special election route. I assume ward 4 would not have any representation during that period. You'd have four member council. I also wonder how that might impact the selection process since there's no tie breaking boat. Those are my biggest questions. Thank you.

[50:33] Okay. Thank you, Mr. Cummings.

[50:43] To answer your question, Councillor Maasarella sent an email that pretty well outlined how

[50:49] I felt it would work, and basically if we come to a tie, we eliminate the low vote getters

[50:58] and move forward. So I'm, I'll,

[51:04] yeah.

[51:06] I think I found that because it was based on what another city had done in a similar situation

[51:11] and I was just researching like what what do we do and if it was if we chose to select or turn

[51:17] we wouldn't be nominating but if we council was voting on who was appointed that there was a process

[51:23] sort of laid out where you do like if there if there was a tie you eliminate whoever's the lowest

[51:28] and then kind of reconfigure reconsider the two tied people and then vote again basically and try

[51:35] to get to a majority. It's not a not a perfect system. It's a good question.

[51:41] Yeah, thank you. What you wrote was virtually how I anticipated it would go if we go to an

[51:48] appointment rather than a special election. So and again, we can't vote on that tonight. We can

[51:56] vote on whether we did which option we're going to choose, but we can't vote on how it's going to

[52:02] happened tonight. We can't vote tonight on now. It's going to happen.

[52:09] Anybody, at least

[52:10] so morally?

[52:13] Well, she's coming up. Do we have any hands raised online at this point?

[52:16] Okay. I didn't see any either. It's morally.

[52:18] 49-08. Cedar, the way I heard the question, and maybe I'm wrong, so I don't want to speak

[52:22] for you. The way I heard the question, there's a link of me four of you voting. So what if there's

[52:27] a tie between the four of you? Not a tie on that. So I'll say there's two candidates.

[52:37] So that's what you're saying at the, okay, so that would be your solution at the four of you.

[52:44] Okay, right. We don't know how many people may, may apply.

[52:51] So again, we're trying not to be presumptuous.

[52:55] Getting the information up front and then Councillor Mauserella.

[52:59] I want to clarify.

[52:59] We can't say that that is what we would do. That is just one idea of what a different city did and one thing that we've read about, but we can't, we're not, we're not deciding that procedure at this meeting if we do decide to do appointment we'll have another meeting about procedure, which we would have public comment add also, I imagine.

[53:16] So to clarify, we're not, we can't. Yeah, we haven't made those decisions yet, but thank you.

[53:26] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for there are anybody else in chambers tonight that want to address us.

[53:32] Okay, further discussion among the council. Why don't we start with council or Davis on this one?

[53:41] Sure, Mayor. Thanks.

[53:44] So I guess my initial thought about it is that I, I don't know that I know

[53:53] noted in my head, the date that the election would actually place someone in office, I assume

[53:58] it's pretty soon after the election itself we could seat the new counselor.

[54:06] But I do have some concern about their essentially being a vacancy in the office for five months.

[54:14] That's a pretty significant period of time in a what's now a three year term.

[54:23] So, you know, for that reason, for maybe the cost reason, I think I tend to lean toward

[54:30] appointment.

[54:33] You know, I've been here for at least a couple of appointments for City Council.

[54:38] I know that that process changes a little bit every time it seems like.

[54:43] And, you know, I think we can come up with some reasonable ways to move forward on it.

[54:50] But that's my instinct to go ahead and try to get an appointment done and maybe to you know in my head to do it rather quickly like to try it.

[55:04] If we choose the right way, we can get into the details then. So, Councillor Davis, you would appear to be voting in favor of appointment this evening at this point. Yeah, you know, I will say I'm not like an absoluteist on that. It's probably like a 64, he's 730 kind of situation, but, but yeah, I think I would lean toward appointment. Great. I

[55:28] I felt that that's what you were trying to convey, so I wanted to clarify that.

[55:33] So thank you.

[55:34] We'll go to Councillor Mozzarella.

[55:42] Ms. Morley, I can't hear what you're saying when you're at the back of the room, and

[55:46] we have closed public comment.

[55:53] How do the Councillors feel about Ms. Morley approaching and asking her a question?

[55:58] We're in discussion right now, so we've passed public comment.

[56:01] that we're in discussion.

[56:03] Are we gonna reopen public comment?

[56:05] That was my question.

[56:07] Are we gonna reopen public comment?

[56:09] I'm asking the council if they would be willing to.

[56:13] Maybe after council discussion,

[56:15] I guess maybe that was my bad for saying

[56:17] we should do public comment first

[56:19] because of course then questions come up in discussion,

[56:21] but that's why I like public comment first

[56:23] because then I have questions that are brought up.

[56:25] It's hard when we don't get to have a conversation.

[56:28] So let's go through without taking an actual vote.

[56:30] Okay.

[56:31] Let's go through here the comments of the Councillors and then we will reopen public comment. Great. Let's do that.

[56:43] Yeah.

[56:45] This is a this is a tough one for me. I very much appreciate the comment about wanting wanting to let all of the residents in the ward vote on on that and feel that makes sense and I totally understand why you would feel that way.

[56:59] And then I also appreciate Andy's comments about not wanting this seat to be vacant for five or six months.

[57:11] And this is it's yeah, and elections it would be I mean, I think before this conversation so far, I was very much leaning towards an appointment because it just seemed like the same amount of candidates could could show up, could present themselves.

[57:27] And that would be a faster way for us to get through the process, but I'm curious to hear from what the other councillors think.

[57:34] I don't have a fully formed opinion, I guess, at the moment.

[57:38] Fair enough. Councillor Adams.

[57:41] Thank you, Mayor.

[57:43] I would say that I'm in favor of an appointment process.

[57:46] The charter dictates two options.

[57:50] without a lot of description about how that procedure

[57:55] actually happens.

[57:59] So, we do have a long appointment.

[58:02] Unfortunately, that are a long term to a point,

[58:06] too, if we decide to do that.

[58:08] We did have an election very recently.

[58:11] Councilor Lump was elected,

[58:14] and it is by charter the duty of the council

[58:17] when there becomes a vacancy to decide

[58:20] whether we appoint or or do another election. And I feel at this time that I would vote for an appointment process with of course us coming together and having adopted clear standards of how we wouldn't go through that.

[58:38] Great. Thank you, Councilor Adams.

[58:43] Mr. Spence, we have a copy of that, a copy of the wording

[58:50] in the charter. The charter actually says we will appoint, and in the absence of that, we can

[58:54] have a special election.

[58:59] Thank you, Mayor. It's really not, it's or not option. It really does say or.

[59:08] I was going to say it would be good to have it pulled up real quick just so we can get the exact wording.

[59:15] I think also I want to add that while this has been something that has occurred in the past that does not dictate through the charter that is a precedence that we follow each time.

[59:25] And this is really up to the elected officials that are here to decide this unfortunately becomes one of the things that the charter dictates that is our job

[59:34] to do is to make this decision.

[59:38] So, yeah, I would like to look at that language but my inclination

[1:00:00] Section 4.9, vacancies, filling, if vacancy in the council shall be filled, one within 60 days by appointment by a majority of the council, or two in the alternative, a majority of council by resolution may declare that vacancy will be filled at the next available election, or any special election. Those are the principal parts that goes on about the election, but that's essentially it.

[1:00:28] Okay, great. I just want to make sure that we are following

[1:00:32] the charter perfectly without any concerns.

[1:00:39] Councillor Lump.

[1:00:41] Thank you.

[1:00:43] Yeah, I really appreciated the comment,

[1:00:45] the public comment about ward four,

[1:00:48] not having representation for a number of months.

[1:00:52] You know, that would be a concern for me,

[1:00:54] or I still going to be a ward four resident.

[1:00:57] We're talking about if we do an employment,

[1:01:00] probably maybe a two month gap,

[1:01:02] but if there's an election five or six months and so it just seems like a long amount of time

[1:01:08] to be without a counselor and so I would prefer an appointment from my view. Also, you know,

[1:01:16] the idea of an election, I understand the philosophy behind letting the people choose but it's also

[1:01:24] an election in March and we have a hard enough time getting people to come out to vote in really

[1:01:30] The big election, so an election in March, you know, people, I don't know if it could be necessarily as representative as it could be.

[1:01:39] And so I think that's an imperfect process as well.

[1:01:44] So I prefer employment.

[1:01:46] Okay.

[1:01:49] Thank you, Councillor. Further discussion from the council before we go to to reopen public comment.

[1:01:59] Thank you.

[1:02:00] I called on Councillor Davis, so I wouldn't forget to call on him.

[1:02:08] I am torn, obviously.

[1:02:11] I don't like the idea of the position being unfilled for a period of time.

[1:02:21] But at the same time, we need to make it clear that this is not about the council, but

[1:02:27] about Ward 4 and what the council wants, but what Ward 4 wants.

[1:02:35] The cost of the special election is of concern, but it shouldn't be our deciding factor.

[1:02:46] The time is more concerning to me overall.

[1:02:50] But again, regardless of which option we choose, it does have to be about Ward 4.

[1:02:58] not just about us. So just

[1:03:04] going through my head here at this point, three of us are somewhat open,

[1:03:10] and two of us are leaning towards the appointment. So I would, unless anyone else has anyone on the

[1:03:20] council has further discussion, I'd like to go back to public comment. Okay, so we are reopening

[1:03:26] public comment. And I see a hand raised in the back, Lisa Morley.

[1:03:37] I really was trying to stay out of this conversation. I also have done a lot of research on this.

[1:03:44] What I found today seemed different than what I was able to find last week when I was looking at that.

[1:03:50] And what I found today, and so this is Mr. Spensen and our lawyer, is that appointment, no matter what,

[1:03:59] But I guess unless you change it or unless this law is wrong in Oregon is that the appointment

[1:04:05] would only be valid until the next general election.

[1:04:09] And then the next general election, then the remainder of the vacancy of that seat would

[1:04:14] be voted on in the general election.

[1:04:17] So that's why I wanted to ask this is the legal question.

[1:04:21] Is it an appointment from when you guys make that appointment only to the general election

[1:04:27] which is in November of 2026. So it would only be to the end of 2027. And then the general election in November,

[1:04:36] they would, more and more would vote on who they wanted to fill the rest of that.

[1:04:40] That, that was the information I found today looking up the ordinance. So

[1:04:45] it's great. Thank you, Ms. Morley. I, um, I have a thought on that, but I'm going to allow our

[1:04:51] City manager and our city attorney to weigh in on that so per the charter says whether the vacancies filled by the appointment or election

[1:05:02] Name and address for the record, please. You'd have three minutes. Still at 317, 317, 318, I'm sorry, 317 street. Maryland, it occurred to me that the two processes via appointment by you or election by the people. It just seemed to be that it would be stacking the deck, I'm sorry to say, if the council's picked their own person as opposed to the people who

[1:05:32] the ward counselor would be serving or helping to serve. Does that sound right to you? Am I off my game?

[1:05:43] Anyway, so the election for the remainder of the term and the appointment for the remainder of

[1:05:50] the term, I think it should go to election, a vacancy of a few months is not going to hurt ward four.

[1:05:56] We

[1:06:00] have our issues. They're not going to change in a few months without a council member.

[1:06:08] Thank you.

[1:06:10] Thank you, Ms. Dito.

[1:06:13] Anybody else in chambers that would like to address us regarding this evening?

[1:06:18] Do we have any hands raised online?

[1:06:21] Okay. Well, back to the council.

[1:06:24] Council. We have two options. We can vote on option one or option two.

[1:06:35] Who would like

[1:06:36] to, well, further discussion and then who would like to make a motion? Or are we ready

[1:06:43] to make a motion?

[1:06:46] Councillor Adams. Thank you, Mayor. I would

[1:06:48] just like to state that this is an unfortunate and difficult decision to make and we have

[1:06:58] to do what's best, not just for our own individual award.

[1:07:01] When we are up here talking about our awards,

[1:07:04] we're also representing the entire city as a team.

[1:07:08] I worked hard to help ward for, get money

[1:07:10] for the Upper Town Business Association,

[1:07:12] 10 of their meetings.

[1:07:14] We cross ward quite often.

[1:07:16] We are all here for the betterment

[1:07:19] and good of the entire city.

[1:07:22] So I think it's important to remember

[1:07:24] that we're all working together

[1:07:25] or while we have our individual award representation,

[1:07:28] we are also all working together.

[1:07:31] And I'm happy to make a motion after discussion.

[1:07:37] Great.

[1:07:38] Further discussion from council?

[1:07:41] Okay, so do we have anybody

[1:07:42] that would like to make a motion?

[1:07:44] Councilor Adams.

[1:07:46] I move that the Astorias to the council

[1:07:50] fill the ward for vacancy by appointment

[1:07:53] of the majority of council

[1:07:54] and hold a special meeting to establish a timeline

[1:07:56] and process to fill the vacancy.

[1:07:59] We have a motion. Do we have a second?

[1:08:03] No second.

[1:08:05] Moved by Councillor Adams, second by Councillor Long.

[1:08:09] Mr. Spence doesn't say there's a roll call here, but I wouldn't mind having a roll call.

[1:08:18] Councillor Davis, aye.

[1:08:20] Mr. Mozzarella.

[1:08:23] Having a hard time deciding.

[1:08:24] Thank you.

[1:08:27] Can you?

[1:08:33] I.

[1:08:35] Councilor Adams.

[1:08:37] I.

[1:08:37] Councilor Long.

[1:08:38] Hi.

[1:08:38] Mayor Fitzpatrick.

[1:08:40] I.

[1:08:41] I would say that I have a hard time deciding too.

[1:08:43] And I would say that at our work session, if we determine that.

[1:08:49] We're not comfortable with that process.

[1:08:51] We can certainly go back to to the other.

[1:08:54] We do have to do it quickly.

[1:08:57] I missed something over there, but I'll find out during the break.

[1:09:00] So, okay, the second part here, so the motion carries to have to go to appointment.

[1:09:12] The second portion here is, will it work for everyone to do this on Wednesday evening?

[1:09:21] Which gives us enough time to notify for the work session.

[1:09:27] Again, is this a work session or a special meeting?

[1:09:30] Yeah, special meeting. Okay, so we will have public input at that point as well.

[1:09:36] It's how we decide to run the meeting.

[1:09:38] But the primary business would be decide the elements of the council appointment process.

[1:09:44] Great. Thank you, Mr. Spins. Okay, so Wednesday works for me.

[1:09:52] Councillor Davis. Yes, that's fine.

[1:09:58] I have an appointment.

[1:10:00] 7 p.m., which I can probably push back. But is it possible to start at 530 instead of 6 p.m. Or is that crazy? It would be. Except for you, except we have court in here.

[1:10:13] On Wednesday. Okay. That's okay.

[1:10:21] I will be gone Thursday, but I could zoom.

[1:10:24] Oh, we're looking down here.

[1:10:27] I could do Wednesday. I'll be remote.

[1:10:28] But I could attend via zoom.

[1:10:32] And Councillor Adams still work for you.

[1:10:38] Yeah, okay. Yeah, we'll make it work.

[1:10:40] So.

[1:10:42] So we have a motion on this.

[1:10:44] Who would like to make a motion?

[1:10:47] I can try.

[1:10:48] We can I move that we have a special meeting.

[1:10:51] on Wednesday, the 22nd. Thank you. At 6 p.m. to discuss the procedures for appointment of vacancy on council.

[1:11:04] Do we have a second? Second. Moved by Councilor Masarella. Seconded by Councilor Adams.

[1:11:11] Is there something we can do? Does this require a roll call? All those in favor say aye.

[1:11:17] Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. So we will have a special meeting on October 22nd, here in

[1:11:24] Chambers at 6 p.m. The current time is 7.10 p.m. We are going to take a 5 minute break after which

[1:11:33] we will come back for new business, miscellaneous public comments, burn on agenda items.

[1:13:15] Okay. Welcome back for the record. The time is 717 PM and we are on to new business,

[1:13:21] Michelinius public comments for non agenda items and non agenda items will soon be open

[1:13:27] for public comment. The Zoom audience may use the raise hand feature on your screen if you

[1:13:32] want to speak. You will be asked to unmute to speak and in order to respect everyone's time,

[1:13:36] comments will be limited to three minutes. If you're inside the chambers, please raise your hand

[1:13:41] When called upon please approach the lectern and state's renaming address and you will have three minutes to make your comments

[1:13:47] So we're going to go for a new business first mr. Spence. Do you have anything to bring in front of the council for new businesses?

[1:13:54] Yeah, they can marry and see council just three items one is I just wanted to preview that we have our we've been working toward getting the October

[1:14:01] 27th work session we have invited our critical community partners

[1:14:06] There's Clots of Behavioral Health, Clots of Community Action, Clots of County, Helping

[1:14:10] Hands, Life Boat Services, and the Harbor of All, Committed to Meeting.

[1:14:14] We assume that we would give, given the broad participation, 10 minutes for presentation,

[1:14:20] 5 minutes for questions, that would take about an hour and a half, and then there's additional

[1:15:00] We provide to the community in the greater class of area. We want to know if there's any if any of the services of the organizations are facing critical funding cuts. We want to know if they've had any service reductions in the last three years and any other helpful information that they could provide the city council. As you recall, too, this was helpful when we were talking about the rapid rental program or the rapid rehousing program and obviously that was new information. And so we obviously want to keep ahead of that also. So that is the item coming up on the 27th.

[1:15:28] The second item I provided copies, we have been invited by our sister city Waldorf

[1:15:35] and Germany to come celebrate a 125th anniversary, and this is for next year.

[1:15:41] They're looking for feedback by the end of this month.

[1:15:44] They're looking to accommodate a delegation of 8 to 10 people,

[1:15:48] and we would communicate depending on if there's participation.

[1:15:51] I don't have to answer now, but just want to make sure Council is aware of that and then work toward that.

[1:15:57] I thank you, Mr. Spence. I would point out for Councillors are already aware in the

[1:16:03] people in the audience. The letter came written in German. So, when I was reading it,

[1:16:08] I pretended to Mr. Spence that I could actually read it, but I couldn't understand it.

[1:16:12] So, he did come up with a translation, and as luck would have it, one of my friends who

[1:16:19] is fluent in German is in the chambers this evening and he read the letter from Waldorf

[1:16:26] and the translation that Mr. Spence provided and he stated that it's accurate. So looks looks

[1:16:35] like our translation works here. Finally, my two years of German and college fan of that.

[1:16:42] My sister is fluent or was fluent in German when we were when we were kids. I don't know if she has

[1:16:48] kept that or not, but nonetheless, I certainly couldn't vouch for the authenticity of the translation,

[1:16:57] but I appreciate that someone with that knowledge was able to do that.

[1:17:02] Then the third item has been mentioned before, but obviously we're very excited. We sent out

[1:17:06] a press release. We've done obviously other communication, but the grand reopening of the

[1:17:11] Astory Public Library, very excited this Saturday, one o'clock. There may be some,

[1:17:17] maybe not great weather, but there'll be sunshine inside the building.

[1:17:21] That's wonderful.

[1:17:23] So once the grand ceremony is over, we will be able to celebrate the library.

[1:17:28] People get to interact with the space and also check out a book, get a library card.

[1:17:33] So very exciting. So I want to thank Suzanne Harold for being not just a librarian, but a project construction manager.

[1:17:39] I know this is a skill set.

[1:17:41] skillset. She's probably not willing to do any more, but she did a great job, so I appreciate that.

[1:17:46] Great. Thank you, Mr. Spence. I'm looking forward to the library ribbon cutting, and as anyone who has

[1:17:55] worked on this type of project has in the past, I love the words on time and within budget, so

[1:18:04] So, great job, Director.

[1:18:10] So other new business from the Council.

[1:18:14] Okay, we'll go to public comment for non-agenda items.

[1:18:18] Rick Newton, I saw that you wanted to speak to us if you would like to address the Council,

[1:18:25] step to the lectern, state your name and address for the record, and you would have three minutes.

[1:18:29] Again, Rick Newton, 775, Southwest 8th, I have a handout for you.

[1:18:35] I don't know what I'm talking about.

[1:18:38] You want to give me the whole thing on the password?

[1:18:40] Thank you.

[1:18:47] As I'm sorry, I should wait for you to get those other ways you won't know what I'm talking about.

[1:18:54] I would say if it's going to take more than two and a half minutes, I just start now.

[1:18:59] Okay. Thanks, Sean.

[1:19:03] It really yanks at my heart when I have a female that's over 55. Her husband left her, she's

[1:19:09] living out of her cart. And finally, when we get to the end, she says, do you know any where I

[1:19:12] can park where I won't be hassled? That just yanks my heart out. So I thought about now this,

[1:19:18] this project here, I would do 22 storage container units that are 320 square feet each.

[1:19:25] If you look at the picture on the left, they would look like English beach cottages with each

[1:19:30] one having color differences and testers up above, but all would have a door with windows

[1:19:35] in it and a front window in it. So the seating area would be light. There'd also be an exit window

[1:19:41] at the back. Around the perimeter, there would be hearty plank. They would be sprinkled, which is

[1:19:47] really easy because they're so teeny. I figured I was going to go to market with these at $600

[1:19:54] because I wanted to help the people of Wharton. But I have to tell you, when Patty and I sat down

[1:19:59] about it.

[1:20:01] So that's a long time. But anyway, if you'd like to ask questions, these units, even if you went to market at $1,000 a piece in two weeks, you would rent everyone because there's so much demand. I don't know if you're aware, but for truly in house, they had 42 units, they had over 400 applications. I'm sorry. As Sean knows, I'm a numbers guy. I work with numbers. And so these, these are not necessarily tending to be permanent housing.

[1:20:29] But for some females and males, you may want that to get them out of their car because they deserve more.

[1:20:37] And so, yes, the reason I could do $600 a month was because I own both lots.

[1:20:42] And they'd be free and clear, which means I get bumped down.

[1:20:46] And so, I expect you to have some questions for me.

[1:20:51] I don't know exactly this lot that I was going to use has water sewer gas to it, which

[1:21:01] was perfect. Plus, because that street at Mornck is 80 feet wide, that gives me an additional

[1:21:07] 17 feet at the front. Because if you look at that, each unit would have a six foot deck

[1:21:12] with a windbreak in front of each unit. If you look closely at the right hand picture,

[1:21:18] you can see the little wind breaks there and then the eight-foot deck out past it.

[1:21:22] Thank you, Mr. Newton. If you would like to address us at a future meeting as well on this,

[1:21:29] we do hold to the three minutes here. That's fine. But I appreciate you bringing this to our attention.

[1:21:35] If you want to address us in the future, please do.

[1:21:39] Send me a note if you want me to. Or send emails to us as well.

[1:21:43] Sure. Great. Thank you. Thanks for your time.

[1:21:45] Thank you, Mr. Newton. Anybody else?

[1:21:52] Name and address for the record? Three minutes.

[1:21:58] Hello, my name is Daniel Hubner. I live at 1846th Street. I'm here because I live in Word 2,

[1:22:03] and I understand that at the last council meeting, Mayor Fitzpatrick asked Councillor

[1:22:07] Mazarell and the others to have their constituents email him directly with their thoughts on the

[1:22:11] exclusion thing that we were talking about earlier, the exclusion zone. So I sent in an email as

[1:22:16] requested, but I'm coming and coming again in person today, because I'm again kind of frustrated

[1:22:21] by the way that this proposal is being pursued, because we all know that countless people emailed

[1:22:27] all of you, including the mayor, spoke in excruciating leave-long sessions in this chamber. So,

[1:22:34] you know, I can't possibly believe that anyone's unaware of the views opposed to that ordinance.

[1:22:40] So, you know, I wrote numerous times over the months when that was in their consideration,

[1:22:45] and I haven't emailed again since then because it was my impression that the council was moving

[1:22:49] forward on work sessions, which I support. So I really don't think it makes any sense to be like

[1:22:54] how many emails have you gotten since we voted on that? I haven't been saying anything because

[1:23:00] I thought you all were doing what I wanted you to. More to the point, and as I kind of implied there,

[1:23:06] I hope you'd all agree that the council does not and should not govern by the volume of emails received.

[1:23:11] So this entire forwarder emails to me how many did you get like it's besides the point to me and it's kind of perplexing and, you know, unfortunately this also sits in the context of repeated false claims both off and even on the council that, you know, partisanship and about conflicts of interest.

[1:23:32] I've seen those claims leveled at both Councilor Maseral and Councilor Lump on this issue.

[1:23:37] And, you know, I expect it may come up again as the Council's getting comments on appointments

[1:23:41] or place Councilor Lump. So I just want to get publicly all on the same page that what our city

[1:23:46] charter actually says about nonpartisanship is that no candidate for office can advertise membership

[1:23:52] in or preference for a political party. That's all it says. We don't have people running as

[1:23:56] Democrats, Republicans, Greens, libertarians. It does not mean that Councillors are somehow

[1:24:01] barred from having strongly held values or priorities or that anyone else in the city government or on the council is entitled to police the partisanship of their colleagues opinions.

[1:24:13] So I just wanted to say that as well as we move forward with this topic and with the appointment issue.

[1:24:18] So in brief, I was going to urge you all to, you know, get back to work on the work session thing. I see you're doing that. So I don't need to urge that.

[1:24:24] but honestly it felt a little disrespectful to constituent time to me to be expected to email

[1:24:31] you again to persuade you that my councillors articulations on this issue are accurate with

[1:24:38] respect to our constituents. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hubner. But anybody else like to

[1:24:45] to address the council this evening.

[1:24:49] Do we have any hands raised online?

City Council

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